The present invention generally relates to the field of electric switch assemblies and more specifically to pushbutton electrical switch assemblies in which the switch chassis and switch actuator form a hand-insertable snap-in subassembly.
Typically, most pushbutton switch assemblies do not have the switch actuator and switch housing forming a hand-insertable snap-in subassembly. They generally correspond to the structure of a standard doorbell pushbutton in which the switch chassis, the actuator and a separate biasing spring must act together to position the actuator in its proper location. This requires a relatively complex assembly technique when a plurality of such pushbutton assemblies are to be assembled to one common switch housing.
In some prior art switch assemblies (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,584) the moveable manual actuator and the switch housing do form a hand-insertable snap-in subassembly. The use of these prior art subassemblies has not substantially reduced the complexity of assembling a number of switches to a common housing since these prior art switches still have required separate additional biasing structure for providing a predetermined bias to the manual actuator as well as requiring stop mechanisms to limit the amount of movement of the manual actuator.